Tuesday, 30 December 2008

Must be some Xenophobic right-wing redneck

... who wrote this:

“The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance.”

and this (paraphrased):

Government and politicians ha[ve] too long failed to acknowledge the feelings of “loss and estrangement” felt by [...citizens or our...] society facing parallel communities that disregard its language, laws and customs.

Monday, 29 December 2008

Relatives of those who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 want the Bush Administration to seize the land needed for a memorial where the plane crashed in western Pennsylvania during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

After all, you can’t concede that it’s OK for people to heat their homes with coal but then object to the use of an electric baseboard heater because the electricity is generated from burning coal. - ShopFloor

(Of course the self-consistent alternative is to not allow people to heat their homes at all.)

Saturday, 27 December 2008

Cats helping dogs

Not new, but still makes me smile.A friend sent this one in an e-mail:

» An Eye on You

Cashew, my 14-year-old yellow Lab, is blind and deaf. Her best friend is Libby, 7, her seeing-eye cat. Libby steers Cashew away from obstacles and leads her to her food. Every night she sleeps next to her. The only time they are apart is when Cashew goes for a walk. Without this cat, we know Cashew would be lost and very, very lonely indeed. Amazing but true: this is one animal that knows what needs to be done and does it day in and day out for her friend.- Terry Burns,Middleburg, Pennsylvania

Like many web memes, this one has been kicking around for a while; at least 3 years, as it turns out. Since then:

MIDDLEBURG (October 29, 2008) -- A local cat has been getting a lot of attention lately.

Libby, owned by Terry and Deb Burns, is being honored by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as Cat of the Year for her loyalty to the Burns' now-deceased dog, Cashew.

Cashew, a yellow Labrador/Shar Pei mix who died in 2005 at 14, gradually went blind and deaf due to old age...

The Burns and Libby will be honored Thursday during the ASPCA's annual Humane Awards Luncheon in New York City. - The Daily Item

Friday, 26 December 2008

SCIENTISTS have warned that Christmas lights are bad for the planet due to huge electricity waste and urged people to get energy efficient festive bulbs.

CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific Research Organisation, Australia] researchers said householders should know that each bulb turned on in the name of Christmas will increase emissions of greenhouse gases.

Dr Glenn Platt, who leads research on energy demand, said Australia got 80 per cent of its electricity by burning coal which pumps harmful emissions into the atmosphere...

He said the nation’s electricity came from “centralised carbon intensive, coal-based power stations” which were responsible for emitting over one third of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

It was during the oughts that Americans started drinking more bottled water than beer. As Susan McWilliams of Pomona College observes, you can tell something about a society that chooses clever water over humble beer. Bottled water is personal, inward-driven. Beer is social, outward-driven. Beer gets the party started. Water is the thirst quencher of choice for the solitary fitness addict, marching to the beat of his or her own drummer, digitally remastered for the iPod.

Well... maybe.

I do drink more bottled water than I did during the ’90s, and certainly I drink more bottled water than beer, but not because I’ve suddenly turned all inward-driven and new-agey.[1] No, it's mostly out of convenience.

Because I drink most of my bottled water at work.[2]

The arrival of bottled water added a welcome choice to the drinks selection. Oh, there was always the inevitable coffee, but before bottled water the “cold” choices in my workplaces were usually limited to soft drinks (calorie-ful with high fructose corn syrup or Artificially Sweetened for Chemical Aftertaste), good ol’ lukewarm curdley milk out of the breakroom fridge, or the occasional Enormous Jug of Training Beverage. That, or a drink from the infamous Water Fountain Of Doom down the hall:Urg.

Bottled water fits nicely in the community refrigerator, doesn’t go bad, and the half-liter bottles are a nice size for the desk. When bottled water is available, I find myself drinking less: (1) coffee, especially during warmer weather and (2) soda, especially since the acquisition of thirty or so unwanted pounds.

As for social imbibition, beer remains my default choice. If I consume less beer than before, well, it’s probably the combination of getting out less,[3] and drinking more Scotch.[4]

So I dunno. “Inward-driven” and “solitary” are the right sounds for making particular social commentary, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.